“We are talking about a cell whose task was not only to monitor and record the US military presence that is in their view hostile but it exceeded that,” Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television.
'They had explosives and the intention to explode vital Kuwaiti facilities. They had names of Officers and they had extremely sensitive information. This indicates bad intentions to harm Kuwaiti security.”
Kuwait hosts Camp Arifjan, a vast US logistics base in the desert south of the capital that serves as a staging post for US forces being deployed in neighboring Iraq.
The United States has air and naval installations in Gulf Arab states, some of which are little more than 200 km (120 miles) from Iran's coast. The US Central Command keeps its forward headquarters in Qatar while Bahrain hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet.
Last month, a Kuwaiti court sentenced 2 Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death for being part of an alleged Iranian spy ring in a case that has strained relations between Kuwait and the Islamic Republic.
Earlier this month, Iran expelled 3 Kuwaiti diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after the emirate said it would throw out 3 Iranian Diplomats in a row over spy allegations. The move came after Kuwait expelled 3 Iranian Diplomats, a Kuwaiti official had said.
But Sheikh Mohammad said Kuwait still wants good relations with Iran. “We completely reject severing ties with Iran,” he said, although Iran needs to treat Gulf Cooperation Council states as “sovereign” and not “subordinate”, he added.
Source: Reuters
